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The Lord's Supper
The Lord's Supper, or as it sometimes called Holy Communion or the Holy Eucharist, according to the COGIC doctrinal statement of faith "symbolizes the Lord’s death and suffering for the benefit and in the place of His people. It also symbolizes the believer’s participation in the crucified Christ. It represents not only the death of Christ as the object of faith which unites the believers to Christ, but also the effect of this act as the giving of life, strength, and joy to the soul. The communicant by faith enters into a special spiritual union of his soul with the glorified Christ." It is reenacted in accordance with Jesus' instruction at the Last Supper, as recorded in several books of the New Testament, that his followers do in remembrance of Him as when he gave his disciples bread, saying, "This is my body", and gave them wine saying, "This is my blood." History The Last Supper appears in all three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke; and in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, while the last-named of these also indicates something of how early Christians celebrated what Paul the Apostle called the Lord's Supper. As well as the Eucharistic dialogue in John chapter 6. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians (c'' 54-55), Paul the Apostle gives the earliest recorded description of Jesus' Last Supper: "The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. ' In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me'".http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=1cor%2011:23-25;&version=; 1 Cor. 11:23-25 The synoptic gospels, Mark 14:22-25, Matthew 26:26-29, Luke 22:13-20, depict Jesus as presiding over the Last Supper. In the gospel of John, the account of the Last Supper has no mention of Jesus taking bread and "the cup" and speaking of them as his body and blood; instead it recounts his humble act of washing the disciples' feet, the prophecy of the betrayal, which set in motion the events that would lead to the cross, and his long discourse in response to some questions posed by his followers, in which he went on to speak of the importance of the unity of the disciples with him and each other. Many Christian denominations classify the Eucharist as a sacrament. Some Protestants prefer to call it an ''ordinance, viewing it not as a specific channel of divine grace but as an expression of faith and of obedience to Christ. In the COGIC In the Church of God in Christ, as many denominations of the Christian faith use wine to symbolize the blood of Jesus, the Church of God in Christ uses grape juice when partaking of the Lord's Supper. This is because the members of the COGIC see drinking wine as an offense to God, since many humans are usually tempted to misuse alcohol to get drunk. Category:Doctrines of the COGIC